- wow, haslem returns and just like that, he saves the day. it looked like the bulls had miami all figured out but suddenly haslem's return looks like it's shifted the series back in miami's favor. *crap*

- is it my imagination, or did rose and the bulls start pressing late in the game two loss? this started in the middle of the 4th quarter, around the time the score was roughly even. a lot of forcing the ball into traffic and a lot of missed buckets, turnovers, etc...

- i wonder how much caron butler's loss is going to handicap the mavs the rest of the way. stojakovic is a dangerous weapon, but there are going to be times when you need two very good wing defenders on the floor, and all they have now is marion the librarian. not that this isn't ancient news, but now is the time when it might make a critical difference.

- for any people complaining about the # of fouls called against dirk's defenders in game one, the thunder -still- made more trips to the line. westbrook had a horrible shooting night, but he still scored 20 points, mostly on FT's. as someone rooting for the mavs, that's a little worrisome. that, and the fact that dirk's not gonna be a superhero every single game... is he?

Today's heat vs. bulls game shows how overrated derrick rose is. He is athletic and can score in bunches, that's it. His shot is so inconsistent, you can never rely on it.

And in terms of point guard skills (court vision, awareness of teammates' strengths/weaknesses, ability to change gears and slow down tempo when necessary) derrick rose is absolutely horrible. His bbiq is lacking, which should be a point guard's advantage.

man, my signal crashed with around five min. to go and i neglected to fiddle with it, assuming that the supersonics had the game won.

not completely sure, but it looks like OKC is getting better and better at exploiting JJ barea, both on O and on D. especially painful was watching him take those open threes...

as hyper-talented as they are, with every game westbrook looks like a bigger knucklehead and durant looks more unsure how to deal with intense pressure. but at least durant should improve at that as he gains experience. westbrook- i'm seeing visions of francis, starbury, iverson, etc...

why is OKC playing perkins over collison at this point? collison kicks ass...

mavs badly need to win at home in game five. first, because OKC is that dangerous. second, because they're so old and need all the extra rest possible for the finals.

man, my signal crashed with around five min. to go and i neglected to fiddle with it, assuming that the supersonics had the game won.

not completely sure, but it looks like OKC is getting better and better at exploiting JJ barea, both on O and on D. especially painful was watching him take those open threes...

as hyper-talented as they are, with every game westbrook looks like a bigger knucklehead and durant looks more unsure how to deal with intense pressure. but at least durant should improve at that as he gains experience. westbrook- i'm seeing visions of francis, starbury, iverson, etc...

why is OKC playing perkins over collison at this point? collison kicks ass...

mavs badly need to win at home in game five. first, because OKC is that dangerous. second, because they're so old and need all the extra rest possible for the finals.

After watching Chicago choke on a night where Miami was begging to have the series at 2-2, Derrick Rose is officially just as bad as Westbrook. Westbrook gets so much heat bc he has Durant, and people like to pretend Rose is on an island by himself when in fact, he has legit talent. Boozer, Noah, Deng, Ex Jazz players (Korver and Brewer), that's loads of talent.

It's bc he plays like the Iverson's and Marbury's. All flash and athleticism, no smarts. Boozer looked like an allstar next to a real point guard, but not with Rose. GEE I WONDER WHY.

The guy is horrible.

And if i were to bet money, id say miami will win it all. And it would make me sick if Dallas loses again to them, as i was even disappointed when they lost in 06. Don't know why, just can't stand the heat and their fairweather fans.

@NF93,
yea, that was slick. plus i love all the steals he's been getting lately- averaging four per game in the OKC series.

re: rose,
i didn't even watch the chicago game because of that 'PG scores all the points' offense. just couldn't summon up the willpower, even though it was the only game on, and all.

re: MIA-DAL finals,
my hope is that the miami team bus crashes and lebron, wade and bosh all get their shooting arms mangled in the wreckage. barring that, if the mavs somehow win, i'm going to be walking around on cloud nine for months.

if lebron wins, i might have to go back to following ostrich racing. even so, it was still very satisfying, the beatdown that kidd put on kobe in the laker series.

mavs won and life is sweet. i pledged $50 to mavs charities if dallas beats the lebrons.

other than the two nets finals a decade ago, it's been ages since i wanted something in sports this much...

I'm with you. I want dallas to win. Not gonna lie I wanted LeBron to win a ring this year. Dallas really inspired me after the Laker sweep though. The chemistry Dallas has right now is just so fun to watch. Of course, I also want J-Kidd to get his ring as well. Dirk is also a person I want to see have some success. So I am totally against the heat if they make the finals. Go mavssss

charles barkley apparently just picked the mavs to win the finals. is that a good thing or a bad thing? i'm not sure.

just noticed that the mavs and heat are tied for the best road record in the league this season at 28-13. that's a pretty killer mark.

i'm very disappointed in the bulls, wishing that they could have put up more resistance, making the heat work at least a game or two more to get the series. nope.

i'm having some trouble finding out for sure, but on WP, butler and beaubois are both listed as inactive. not sure how the injury roster works for the playoffs, but either of those guys could be critically important to the mavs' chances. meanwhile, brian cardinal has an active roster spot ahead of those two. ugh.

My heart is with Dallas but my head says Miami will win in 6 games, and mind you they have home court.

This Miami team is scary. They will no doubt bulldoze their way through the Eastern Conference for the next several years.

And this convinces me more than ever that it's Dwight or bust for us. If we don't get him, you can forget Proky's five year plan and toss it in the trash. We will never beat that three headed monster with Deron, Lopez, and bunch of role players, even if theyre solid role players. We need at least two top 10-15 players on this team to even have a chance. And point guard and center are the heat's weakness so we could exploit that.

> This Miami team is scary. They will no doubt bulldoze their
> way through the Eastern Conference for the next several years.

the thing that's such a bummer is that each of the superfriends agreed to a $14m salary in order to play together. i mean, $43m against your cap for three players seems ridiculous until one realises how much of a killer bargain miami is getting by employing two of the top three players in the league plus a top-five PF. all at different positions, too, so there is no overlap and redundancy.

so under current conditions you have $20m+ to fill out the roster, which doesn't seem like a lot, except for the fact that you're also getting a severely-underpaid (3.5m/yr for 5 years) basketball beast like udonis haslem to back up or start at the 3-5 slots. then you have what amounts to a wet dream for any outside shooter with awful athleticism to look like a god in miami's offense, so to speak. there can't be any greater opportunity in the history of basketball for such types, can there?

what's even more scary- imagine in years to come that aging stars decide to take a pay cut and chase a championship with the heat, like karl malone and gary payton did a few years ago. without remotely the bad blood between miami's superstars to foul things up, like there was between shaq and kobe.

predictions- i have to agree about miami in six. it's sad and it's wrong in so many ways, but miami is just that good.